About the Contributor

Brigitte Potter-Mael was born in the south of Germany in 1943 and immigrated to Canada in 1977. Her artistic practice includes drawing, papermaking, analogue printmaking, and installation art, guided by strong interests in botany, philosophy, and languages. Preliminary courses in weaving and ceramics at the Visual Arts Centre in Montreal led her to academic studies at Concordia University in 1979, where she earned a BFA in 1983. Many years of exploration included performative art, interdisciplinary collaborations, and community outreach projects, while creating works on paper remained closest to her practice throughout. Portability, affordability of materials, and the size of her worktable and studio space has always played a large part in her artistic choices. In 1989–90, during a six-month residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Brigitte visited Vancouver and Victoria. Instantly enchanted by the lush and diverse flora of British Columbia, she left Montreal, and since then she has lived and worked in a culturally-diverse art community on the unceded traditional territories of Vancouver’s Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. She continues to honour this fertile and welcoming land and its supportive community with gratitude.